Wild Clary

The most eye-catching part of his recent profile is what happened at Newbury just last week. That was his second career win, and Newbury carries a bit of weight — it is one of the classier venues on the British calendar, regularly hosting top-level racing. Winning there is not nothing. His recent form reads 4-1-3-2-4-2 going back six runs, which shows a horse bouncing around the placings but clearly in decent nick. He raced just yesterday, so he is very much in the thick of his season right now.

There is one curiosity worth noting. His regular partner Sean Levey has ridden him nine times without getting a win — every single victory Wild Clary has managed has come with someone else in the saddle. That is the kind of quirky stat that is hard to explain but impossible to ignore. Meanwhile, at Class 4 level — the bread and butter of mid-tier British racing — he has run eight times and not won once. Both of his wins have come elsewhere, which suggests he might actually be better than the level he usually competes at.

Richard Hannon, who trains him at his yard in Wiltshire, seems to share that view. Earlier this spring Hannon flagged him as a horse the race conditions suit well, pointing to a strong run at Ripon as evidence he had settled into himself after a slightly fizzy start to the campaign. Hannon's yard has already sent out 118 winners this season — this is a yard that fires horses fit and ready — and Hannon suggested at the time that a win in a decent six-furlong sprint was coming. Last week at Newbury, it arrived. The question now is whether Wild Clary can back it up and prove that was the start of something rather than just a good day.